Recapping the year 2025, by the numbers
At this point, it's starting to feel like every calendar year of CoCo tournament action just goes by so fast. Blink and you might miss it. Now that we've been at this for over a half-decade, we've settled into something of a rhythm, and it just feels like we're rattling off tournament after tournament now, year after year. It all goes by like a blur.
So it's helpful, on occasion, to take a step back and really appreciate the full scope of all the Scrabble that goes down in any given year.
As 2025 comes to a close, it's time to zoom out and reflect on it all. Here's a recap of this past year by the numbers.
25
Tournaments the CoCo sanctioned this year. Not an earth-shattering number by any means, and it's a number we're always working to improve upon, but it's a solid foundation for us. It's a consistent clip of a couple tournaments a month. For now, not too shabby.
15
People who won at least one CoCo event this year. In alphabetical order, the list goes: Alec Sjöholm (6), Ben Schoenbrun (2), Brad Whitmarsh, Brett Haughney, Christopher Grubb, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Dave Wiegand (2), David Brown, Erickson Smith, Evans Clinchy, Joshua Castellano (2), Kolton Koehler (2), Matthew O'Connor (2), Stefan Rau, and Wellington Jighere. Well done, all!
11
States that played host to at least one CoCo event this year. Namely, that'd be California, Colorado, Georgia, Louisiana, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Texas, Virginia, and Washington. From sea to shining sea, indeed.
146
People who played in at least one CoCo event this year. A new record, and it's not even close! Thanks to everyone for showing up and showing out this year. We're grateful for every single one of you.
2,941
Total games played at CoCo events this year. That's a lot of Scrabble. And to give you a little extra bonus stat, there were 2,436,820 total points scored in those games, for an average of just over 414 per player per game.
712
High score posted by any player in any CoCo game this year. That came courtesy of none other than Wellington Jighere, who got off to an extremely good start at the California Open last week. Wellington had the only 700 game of the year; we did, however, see 50 games over 600.
1,100
High score posted by both players combined in any CoCo game this year. That distinction goes to Wellington and Eta Karo - Wellington notched a 621-479 victory when the two players squared off at Word Cup this summer.
519
High loss posted by any player in any CoCo game this year. Kudos to Bruce Ward, who put up this killer score at the California Open; sadly for him, it wasn't enough to overcome Cheryl Melvin's 531.
11
Tie games in all CoCo events this year - approximately 0.374022441 percent of all games played. Yes, I plan to keep tracking this utterly meaningless statistic until the end of time. Special shoutouts are due to Chloe Fatsis and Matt Zeleznik who had the highest tie of the year, at 467, and to Carson Ip and Bharath Balakrishnan who had the lowest, at 350.
$45,198
Total prize money awarded at CoCo events this year. Prizes were as big as $4,000, which was Wellington's payout for winning Word Cup this summer; they were as small as $1, as several tournaments awarded a single greenback to the most mediocre player in the field. The famous "Why'd You Even Come Here?" prize.
229
Total names on the CoCo membership list as of this writing - meaning, they've played at least one in-person rated tournament since 2020. This number just keeps going up, up, up! Thanks to everyone who joined our ranks this year.
62
Names currently on our list of CoCo Premium Members. Thanks to you all! If you haven't joined yet, I definitely recommend it. It's a win-win proposition - you get significant savings on tournament entry fees, and we get a little bit of support to help keep the lights on.
6
Listings on our new roster of CoCo Clubs. We launched our clubs page earlier this year as a way to offer players a chance to network with other Scrabblers in their local areas. Right now, we've got 6 clubs in 6 different cities; we would love to add more.
54
Articles published this year on the very blog you're reading right now. Wait, no, 55 including this one! Although I'm still writing this one at the moment, so it doesn't count until after I finish it. Schrodinger's blog post, or something like that.
12
Installments we've sent out so far in our "CoCo News" series of email newsletters, one each month on the first Friday. We're doing everything we can to keep in touch with our membership about the latest CoCo goings-on. We hope you appreciate the updates.
43
Responses we received when we sent out our first-ever CoCo Player Survey earlier this year. We appreciate everybody's input! We're trying to do everything we can to deliver a tournament experience that's consistent with what you all, the players, want. So, every little bit of feedback helps.
24
Directors and organizers who helped run at least one CoCo event this year. Listed alphabetically: Arthur Braden, Ather Sharif, Austin Shin, Bennett Jacobstein, Conrad Bassett-Bouchard, Dave Wiegand, Edward De Guzman, Eric Fox, Evans Clinchy, Guy Ingram, Jennifer Clinchy, Jesse Day, Kate Fukawa-Connelly, Lila Crotty, Lindsay Shin, Matthew O'Connor, Niel Gan, Nits Chagti, Scott Smith, Terry Kang, Tim Fukawa-Connelly, Tony Boyle, Travis Chaney, and Zachary Dang. A huge thank you to all of you! Without your contributions, none of this would be possible.
5
People who served on the CoCo Board of Directors this year - David Whitley, Peter Armstrong, Randi Goldberg, Rob Robinsky, and myself. And for the first time ever, we'll be running it back with the same board members two years in a row! Randi and I were reelected this fall, so we will be returning for 2026 and '27.
6
Years that the CoCo as an organization has been alive and kicking. We first announced our existence to the world on Dec. 30, 2019, so our anniversary is coming up next week. We've had a blast these first six years, and we're already raring to go for year seven.